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Analysis and Health

Why being bilingual really does seem to delay dementia

Multiple studies suggest that speaking more than one language pushes back the onset of dementia, but doesn't seem to stop it entirely

By Helen Thomson

20 February 2025

Speaking more than one language appears to boost our brain in multiple ways

Eiko Tsuchiya/Shutterstock

Parlez-vous français? Learning another language may stave off Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia – and it’s never too late to start.

Bilingualism was first linked with the deferral of dementia in 2007, when Ellen Bialystok at York University in Toronto and her colleagues examined the records of people who had been referred to a memory clinic and diagnosed with dementia. Of the 184 people in their analysis, symptoms appeared four years later in those who were bilingual than in their monolingual peers.…

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